WWE Superstars Scores (Aug. 7)

While I missed this week's TNA show, I was able to catch Thursdays WWE Superstars broadcast thanks to the old trusty DVR. I must say right off the top that this was a solid show and I didn't have to skip any matches or skits.

I originally thought that the Superstars concept was: 1. Going to be a time-filler like the old Saturday and Sunday morning one hour shows, and that 2. It was going to put too much strain on the stars and commentators due to the added travel on their already jam-packed calendars.

An example would be JR and Todd having to travel to Raw every week to broadcast one match.

But I have been proven wrong again this week. If Superstars keeps going at this rate, I would just have it replace Monday Night Raw altogether.

But hey, this is not a whine and moan column, so I will get down to the review.

Chris Masters and Santino had a good match to start. It was nice to see Santino doing something other than dressing in drag, and good to see Masters continuing to rebound from his past issues.

They had a simple, yet entertaining match, and Santino managed to get the crowd (dead crowd at that) involved and made me laugh out loud at the same time.

The tag team of Paul Birchall/William Regal facing Tyler Reks/Yoshi Tatsu was a great match from the start. The two Englishmen were as aggressive as ever, and the rookies responded in kind.

Katie Lee was as sexy as ever, although I am not sure if it was her shoes or not, she staggered around like she had been drinking; I am sure it was the shoes.

Yoshi was great, and took a sick-looking suplex from Regal that he will probably feel for the rest of the weekend. Tyler Reks used a simple, yet effective offense, and I see these two newcomers going far if they can keep from being injured.

The last match between Rey Mysterio and Mike Knox was good as well. I have to admit that I am not a fan of the whole "impossible to win" matches being won by the little guy.

However, Knox and Mysterio did as well as they could and put on an entertaining match, but if you saw the beating Rey took, you know what I am talking about.

Not really complaining here, but the whole object of sports entertainment is to convince me that the storylines are plausible. Seems like Knox was having trouble with his knees as well, so that is something to keep an eye on.

Like I said, an all-around entertaining show that I thoroughly enjoyed. Now for a few random thoughts:

Whats up with Vladimir Koslov? I was unhappy with his being moved to ECW and I really cannot wait to see him involved in main event storylines again.

Now is a really good time to own WWE stocks. The company was featured on Fox Business Channel today, declared a huge dividend, and more than doubled their profits this past quarter. What recession?

I said all of that to say this. We moan about the whole PG-13 rating and about how much better it was under the whole "attitude" genre, but I don't think that is really an issue here.

The company is catering their products toward a younger audience. But so are Star Wars the cartoon and movies. There is more violence and blood in those than we see on WWE television nowadays.

But consider this: while us grown men who love this business want the brand to mature with us, we have to remember how our parents would have felt if we were subjected to blood, violence, and bird flipping along with filthy language and seeing "live" sex.

Add to that this memory: Remember when we were that age? We had to have every action figure, every new ring, every new t-shirt, and our parent bought them. When they were in town, we went to their shows.

Guess where WWE makes the biggest part of their profits?

You got it, license and merchandise.

So, cater to us adult kids who only watch TV and complain about how we miss the Attitude Era (and I am one of those, if you have read my previous articles), or cater to the ones whose parents are spending the dough and paying the bills.

Took your kids to see a show lately? $50-$100 tickets, $30 T-shirts, plus whatever else the little con artists can talk us into. See what I am talking about?

Am I defending the company? Not so much as I am just being honest. I miss the whole Attitude Era too. But as George Lucas has proven, you can have a "violent" program geared towards kids without all the filthy language and near-porn of yesteryear.

Or I think so. Don't worry fans, I will be back to moaning and complaining tomorrow, but I just got my dividend check, so I will be nice in this one.

But the show was great, regardless. I hope you caught it, and if not, I hope I didn't spoil too much before you catch it on YouTube.